TV chef Jamie Oliver has said his “hero” Marco Pierre White “still doesn’t like me at all” after he “destroyed” him when the pair first met.
The 49-year-old said his Michelin-starred rival was important for the restaurant industry, despite Pierre White previously describing Oliver as “a fat chef with a drum kit” during a 2007 interview with The Sun.
Asked about the feud on The Louis Theroux Podcast, Oliver said: “Oh he doesn’t like me at all, still doesn’t.
“I don’t know (why). I have no shared history with him, working under him, so, he doesn’t have a sense of control.
“I mean, I could easily start saying, look, we don’t get on, more importantly, he was really important for the industry.
“When I was a very young chef, the industry was quite dark and boring, and it felt like from a different era and he came along, and he was incredible, and his sort of energy and attitude was so cool, he was my hero, for sure.”
The cookbook author continued: “We went on a shoot one day, spent a day with him and it was perfectly lovely, and then a week later he just destroyed me on a double-page spread.
“I was really pleased to meet him, but he just destroyed me. And then you sort of think, well that was sort of a bit low.
“But, you meet people you love and often they’re like, they clearly think you’re a wanker. So that’s fine. I don’t need anything from him.
“I still think he was a game changer. He was still my hero for that period of my life. But, that’s life and it’s not just Marco, it’s lots of people it’s happened to.”
Despite his struggles with 63-year-old Pierre White, Oliver said he had made up with fellow chef Gordon Ramsay, saying they are “currently friends” after being told to “grow up” by their wives and children.
In 2016, 58-year-old Ramsay accused Oliver of only campaigning on issues when he had “something to promote”, and the pair have had a number of further public squabbles.
Oliver also said Ramsay was “very supportive” when his restaurant empire, which included Jamie’s Italian, Barbecoa and Fifteen, collapsed into administration in May 2019.
The Essex-born star went on to speak about presenting BBC Two’s The Naked Chef, which ran from 1999 to 2001, saying men had angrily approached him in the street complaining their wives and girlfriends had asked them to cook more regularly after watching the show.
He explained: “Their girlfriends or wives were going, ‘excuse me, we’re both doing like a 10-hour day, we’re both knackered, why don’t you get your arse in the kitchen, like this little foetus running around with a pair of lips?’
“I did get chased once, coming out of Covent Garden Tube station, and I ran about 300 metres, and he got me in a corner.
“He pinned me up against the wall, and I thought, f*** it, he’s going to punch me now.
“He goes, ‘thanks to you, I have to cook three times a week’, and I thought, oh shit.
“I was going say, ‘how is it? what’s the seasoning like?’ and his face went from pure aggression, he was built like a brick shithouse as well, then he relaxed and goes, ‘actually, I’m really good at it. I’m actually better than you’, then walked off.”
The full interview can be heard on The Louis Theroux Podcast which is currently available on Spotify.
Representatives for Marco Pierre White have been approached for comment.
